Toa Henare, Tomoaki Honma, and Juice Robinson vs. Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Yojiro Takahashi, and Jay White)
Good hardcore-style villains faced off with wicked cheating villains in a match custom-built to entrance the crowd. Gedo joined Bullet Club outside of the ring, ready to mercilessly cheat, though it must be noted that the sexy PIETER was nowhere to be seen when Takahashi the Tokyo Pimp came down to the ring.
Hey look! It's Honma! Henare, Honma, and Robinson have all been wonderful in these exhibition matches, and tonight was no different. Honma and Takahashi went first, grappling roughly to begin chipping at each other.
Bullet Club worked together to ruin Juice and Henare outside the ring, and the slimy White couldn't keep Honma in a hold long enough to deny him the bottom rope. When the hold broke, Owens tagged in to throw Honma and get him into place for Takahashi to take him to the corner.
Once White tagged in, they traded chest chops but Honma was able to make his kokeshi move connect. Honma tagged Robinson in and Robinson ran thought White and Owens without mercy.
White and Robinson reversed each others' moves until White suplexed Robinson and tagged Owens in. Owens has been the backbone of Bullet Club's athletic prowess and he nearly matched Henare.
With Takahashi, Cobb was able to suplex Henare, and with White, he was able to deliver a package piledriver. Henare was down for the count. Once more, Bullet Club comes out on top!
Results: Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Yojiro Takahashi, and Jay White) def. Toa Henare, Tomoaki Honma, and Juice Robinson via pinfall
Ren Narita, Jeff Cobb, and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, and Tetsuya Naito)
LIJ members have very different looking entrances, but they flow well together and the camera work does an excellent job helping that along. The crowd adores Naito and LIJ in general, so this was set up to be a great preview match.
Cobb is 'on loan' to NJPW from Ring of Honor as part of their partnership, and he's had a strong performance throughout the tournament so far. Narita is my personal favorite of the non-Shooter young lions, for the record.
Ishii the Stone Pitbull squared off with Takagi first, equal in ferocity. The untagged four brawled in the crowd, but Naito found his way to a tag and a dirty referee distraction. Ishii was left in Bushi's hands for a moment, and Bushi found the strength to tag Narita in.
Narita wasn't in for long, and he tagged the massive wall that is Cobb in to face Naito. Cobb's strength was dwarfed by Naito's speed, and he took damage from Nito and BUSHI. He rallied, picking both men up to deliver a massive suplex.
Bushi, exhausted, was suplexed in short order by Narita, the freshest man in the match. The veterans took over in short order, and LIJ worked like a well-oiled machine to take him down piece by piece. Bushi hit Narita with a neckbreaker and his finisher to pin Narita.
Results: Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, and Tetsuya Naito) def. Ren Narita, Jeff Cobb, and Tomohiro Ishii via pinfall